Norwegian chess superstar has cross-over appeal

PAWN STAR:The emergence of record-breaking 22-year-old chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen has helped spur interest in the game not witnessed since the 1970s and 1980s

AP, STAVANGER, Norway

He does fashion shoots with Liv Tyler, enjoys soccer-style sponsorships deals and was recently named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people. Who is this superstar? The world’s top-ranked chess player.

With his trendy look and athletic physique, Norway’s Magnus Carlsen has brought an injection of cool to the normally sedate world of global chess — extending its popularity beyond its niche following. The 22-year-old’s home country is buzzing with excitement as he competes in a tournament here just months before he tries to crack the greatest prize in the game: the chess World Championship.

In November, the young Norwegian challenges the reigning world champ, Viswanathan Anand, for the title, which typically is contested every other year. The inaugural Norway Chess competition in Stavanger, starting today, is being widely touted as a dress rehearsal for the championship that is tentatively slated to be played in Chennai, India, where Anand enjoys home advantage.

With the lure of Carlsen and the 43-year-old Anand, and the 275,500 euros (US$360,000) prize money, the competition has attracted one of the strongest lineups ever assembled for a chess tournament. Even with the withdrawal last month of world No. 2, Vladimir Kramnik, the 10-man competition will feature seven of the world’s top 10 players, and nine of the top 16, all vying for the 100,000 euros top prize.

“It is very good timing for us. It is very big for Norway that Magnus is doing so well and this probably wouldn’t have been possible without him,” Norway Chess chairman Kjell Madland said. “We hope it will be the first of very many big chess moments in Norway.”

The competition is the first example of Norway, today one of the most successful welfare states in the world, leveraging Carlsen’s brilliance to try to earn a place alongside more traditional chess superpowers like Russia and the US.

Carlsen’s prodigious brilliance is seen by some as bringing intellectual and cultural heft to the social welfare models of Nordic Europe, particularly Norway.

“Chess is connected to what you can call a kind of prestige in the sense that many people look upon the best players as very intelligent and many countries would like to be associated with this,” said Joeran Aulin-Jansson, president of the Norwegian Chess Federation. “We hope that the next Magnus Carlsen will come from Norway, though the chances in such a small country are fairly slim.”

If not necessarily a geopolitical shift, the tournament here certainly represents chess’ generational shift bringing into sharp focus the edge afforded by youth.

In a game rarely associated with feats of physical endurance, Carlsen prepares for tournaments by mentally revising openings while pounding a treadmill. He will be the youngest competitor at Norway Chess, but he is among six of the world’s top eight, all competing here, who are still under 30.

“These long tournaments are quite tiring and long games are very tiring, especially at the end,” he said. “If you are in good shape and can keep your concentration you will be the one who will profit from your opponents’ mistakes. In general towards the end of the tournaments younger players have that advantage so the other players will have to try to equal that by having good fitness as well.”

His fitness matches his unusual style of favoring the middle and long game over obsessive strategizing about opening exchanges.